Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-02-01 / 2. szám
FRATERNITY 5 camels in order to discourage robbers from attempting a raid. At this hue and cry the village folk gathered by the roadside and watched the caravan, each viewing it with his own eyes and thinking his own thoughts about it. One of them invoked Allah’s blessing upon the merchants, another envied them for their treasures, a third calculated the profits that would be made in the Damascus Bazaar, while a fourth groaned for the slave girls who were like the silver moon as it slowly ascends the white marble stairway of clouds, above the palm trees and minarets, towards the highest pinnacle of the skies. Among the gaping bystanders there was a woman, a beauty among beauties and a good-for-nothing among good-for-nothings. This wench took a fancy to one of the young drivers, and observing that all were distracted by the great excitement, she approached him and whispered in his ear: “Come back at night when the caravan takes its rest. Scratch my window-pane and I will let you in. Fear not, for my husband is a sleeper of sleepers.” The driver made no reply, but he winked and this was answer enough for the woman. She made off homewards to prepare a vast leg of mutton for her husband and stealthily to keep a large portion of if for the driver. And as it happened, she passed under Abu Majub’s tattered balcony at the very moment when the pious sage threw the impudent flea out the window. It was fore-ordained that the flea should drop onto the woman, bite her neck and adroitly conceal itself in a fold of her garment. In this manner the woman carried the flea home with her. When the flea, transported to the kitchen, saw the huge turnspit and the roaring flames underneath, it became terrified. It dared make no move, but at night when the driver embraced the woman in the darkness of the chamber it decided to abscond. In the wild joy of anticipated freedom it jumped upon the driver and began to sting and bite him. The infuriated driver lit a lamp to look for the wicked pest and kill it. The light awakened the husband, sleeper of sleepers though he was. Before the driver could escape, the husband grabbed a dagger, threw himself on the villain and stabbed him to death. The woman ran out into the night, her wailing roused the village folk and her screams reached the caravan which was camping some distance away. The driver’s companions invaded the house and bludgeoned the husband to death. In the resulting uproar the flea opportunely vanished.
